You’ll see lots of lists like this around this time of year: some might make you raise an eyebrow or two.
One much-hyped round-up hails East Anglia as one of the world’s must-visit regions for 2025. Why? Because it is ‘enigmatic’, and apparently ‘word is creeping out’ about the region. Who knew Cambridge and the Suffolk coast were such secrets?
Another list recommends visiting Italian monasteries to listen to Gregorian chants – not a word on why 2025 is the year choral music holidays break through. Dozens of places are branded as ‘trending destinations’ or so-called ‘undiscovered gems’.
Many of the destinations on lists like these are chosen at random, or worse because a country or destination has stuffed some sponsorship into the pockets of the publisher. We’ve taken a different approach. Instead of whims, hunches and marketing budgets, we’ve compiled our list based on genuine shifts in accessibility or landmark moments.
This article first appeared in Which? Travel. Unlike all other national UK travel magazines and newspaper travel sections, Which? Travel never accepts freebies – no free flights, no free hotels, no free anything.
A lot of this is about new flight routes. These can make it easier to reach a new destination, or provide competition on an existing route. That, in turn, makes it much cheaper to fly to — Greenland, below, is the perfect example.
Other countries or cities have simply become cheaper for British travellers, and therefore more affordable to more holiday-makers. Japan, also on our list, is one such place.
In reality, events by themselves are rarely enough to encourage someone to buy a train or plane ticket – except when they are really special. The 80th anniversary of VE Day in May, whether here or in Europe, will certainly be that.
Over the following pages is real-world inspiration for real-world holidays in 2025. Exactly what Which? Travel is all about.
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Iceland, Svalbard, Lofoten islands, Northern Lights tours everywhere — our enthusiasm for Arctic adventures shows no signs of letting up.
So perhaps the most exciting new destination for a 2025 holiday is Greenland, where the capital of Nuuk has just flung open the doors to a new international airport. Until now travellers had to fly into a remote military airport at Kangerlussuaq, before changing on to a small propeller plane to fly the 200 miles to Nuuk. It was difficult and expensive. Nuuk’s new airport offers five weekly direct flights to Copenhagen, rising to eight by summer, with new weekly connections to Iqaluit.
You come here to experience the Arctic wilderness in the raw. If Iceland is tarnished by tourism, Greenland still has wilderness in abundance. Boats – the main transport in a country without roads – link Inuit settlements the colours of Lego bricks in the world’s largest fjords. Floes spin like waltzing mountains in the Unesco-listed Ilulissat Icefjord.
How one of the last untouched regions of the planet – with just 56,000 inhabitants – survives becoming the next big thing remains to be seen. If you do go, travel there with operators that champion small-scale, community-based tourism – Intrepid has several tours. The edge of the world just got a little closer.
Want to plan a cheaper trip in 2025? Read our 28 ways to save money on holidays.
Who, a decade ago, could have imagined Ghana on the schedules of Virgin Atlantic? Yet a new direct flight from Heathrow to Accra launches in winter 2025, with a Hilton also scheduled to open this year.
Safe, sunny, English-speaking and in the same time zone as the UK, it has all the ingredients to be a fantastic year-round holiday spot. And Ghana is very much on up. Beyond Accra, west Africa’s capital of cosmopolitan (if slightly chaotic) cool and home to a thriving pan-African dining scene, is a tropical coastline made for winter sun.
Cape Coast has horizon-pushing, beautiful beaches of dreams. These beaches have a painful history. Cape Coast Castle, a former slave holding post that now contains a museum, is a sobering but essential visit.
Inland are rainforest adventures in Kakum National Park or, further afield, Unesco-listed Mole National Park; the safari no one knows.
The next 50 years of travel: read the Which? Travel forecast
Since Norwegian Airlines pulled its budget flights back in 2019, the cost of getting to your favourite city in Asia has skyrocketed. But things are looking up. In 2023, Tui launched charter flights to the city state to connect to its cruises; this March, Singapore Airlines will add two more flights direct to London. The increased competition – on a route already served by British Airways – should see fares drop.
In our world city survey, where readers rate long-haul cities, Singapore has long been one of your favourite Asian destinations. Why? Five stars for food and four for hotels provides an answer. The hospitality shown in this dynamic city state has a sophistication and glitter rare anywhere else. Hotel such as Capella Singapore and Raffles Singapore rank among the world’s best. The dining scene is revered – whether your taste is the raffish gourmet tour of the city’s hawker centres or the kitchens of Asia’s top chefs.
2025 marks 60 years since the city-state separated from Malaysia to become independent. Expect the most fireworks you have ever seen in your life on 9 August.
Don’t let an airline ruin your holiday. Read our survey to find out the best airlines when planning your 2025 trip.
There has never been a better time to go. A drop in local prices, combined with a weaker South African rand against the pound, means the price of a holiday in Cape Town is now 12% cheaper than in 2023 for Brits. Luxury hotels for less than £100, and a three-course meal for two with wine for under £50. Cape Town is an absolute bargain.
If cost is one motivation to go, the enduring reason is that Cape Town represents the best BOGOF deal in travel – a city break and nature break for the price of one trip. The city came top of our most recent world city survey thanks to dining and shopping in V&A Wharf, the views from Table Mountain and the fact that you can be in some of the most stunning wilderness in the world within an hour.
All that and no jetlag as winter in Europe bites. Perfect.
It’s impossible to estimate just how much money Saudi Arabia has splurged on influencers, instagrammers and other PR over the past year in trying to improve its international image and convince tourists it’s somewhere they would like to visit.
Tourism development remains dizzying in 2025: five-star openings in Jeddah by Four Seasons and Raffles, and luxury hotels from Aman and Six Senses in the desert destination of AlUla. There are two new resorts in mountainous Al Baha and four in Yanbu, including a lifestyle hotel, beach resorts and a dive academy, plus continuing development of Red Sea giga-projects such as Neom. No wonder Wizz Air is cashing in with the first budget flights. Scheduled from Gatwick, they go to the historical coastal resort of Jeddah from 31 March.
Of course, the country’s puritanical interpretation of Islam means not everyone is welcome. Homosexuality is illegal, and Saudi has previously been ranked in studies as one of the most racist countries in the world. Visitors, especially women, are expected to dress modestly, although headscarves are no longer mandatory. Sex outside of marriage is illegal and alcohol remains banned.
Just over a year since an inaugural service glided out last December, the Maya Tren – Mexico’s 966-mile mega-rail-project down the Yucatan Peninsula – should be complete in early 2025. The route traverses five states from Cancun to Palenque before looping back via Tulum.
What elevates it from mere transport tour gold is that its 34 stops are intended to connect the ruins of the Mayan civilisation, hence the name. Brilliantly, it stops right at Cancun Airport and at gate stops at many of the region’s most popular sights, while also encouraging you to see lesser known but equally extraordinary destinations.
The mother lode of them all is Chichen Itza near Merida (also a stop). This World Heritage Site of carved temples (the Temple of the Warriors is extraordinary) and columned arcades is centered on the Pyramid of Kukulcan. Only slightly less impressive are the jungly ruins at Palenque or Tulum, the latter pleasingly sited above splendid tropical beaches.
Book your tour with a provider you can trust: find one in our guide to the best escorted tour providers.
Happy birthday, then, to Disneyland the original Magic Kingdom, which opened on 17 July 1955. Disney remains coy on the specifics of celebrations for its 70th birthday, but you can be sure no expense will be spared. Based on 50th and 60th anniversaries, the blogosphere (giddy with exceptionally speculative events) will begin in spring and run for a year.
There will probably be a return of the Paint the Night Parade – evening spectaculars of parades and fireworks. Plus, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, a musical water-ride with Princess Tiana and chums from The Princess and the Frog will have opened, along with a new show, Walt Disney – A Magical Life, which introduces an animatronic Walt.
If you’ve ever toyed with experiencing Disney fairy dust (sprinkled by Tinkerbell, presumably), this is your year. There is enough in Anaheim to make a holiday without setting foot in the park, from baseball at Angel Stadium to 42 miles of Orange County beaches.
Don’t want to go that far? Check out how to visit Disneyland Paris on a budget in 2025
You don’t like Las Vegas. It came second bottom of our most recent world city survey and received the lowest score for culture.
But there is culture everywhere in Sin City, just the side of American culture that celebrates excess. Vegas is big, loud, crass and shamelessly glittery. The trick is to embrace it. Revel in the razzmatazz of a show (everyone from The Eagles to Mariah Carey are in town in 2025), gawp at a mega-casino and ride the rollercoaster 886ft up atop The Strat hotel. Take selfies before dancing fountains and exploding volcanoes on The Strip and tour ‘old Vegas’ downtown, which is currently enjoying a revival around Fremont Street.
Then, after a few days, get the hell outta there, lest Vegas bleed you dry. Norse Atlantic launched flights from Gatwick in September, and flight prices are headed to historic lows.
Because our perceptions of Brazil are nostalgic for bossa nova and Ipanema beach, Rio de Janeiro takes top billing in tourism.
Talk to Brazilians, however, and they’ll rave about Brazil’s megacity, São Paulo – the biggest city in the Americas. They’ll mention its creativity and showstopper sights such as the Museum of Art, its exuberant skyscrapers, and perhaps the new-found wealth embodied by hotels like the Rosewood São Paulo. They may also describe it as a cultural melting pot to rival New York (with Portuguese, Japanese, Levantine, Korean, and Jewish people plus lots of Italians) and recommend you dine in reinvigorated neighbourhoods.
In short, if Rio has the looks, Sao Paulo has the energy and diversity you seek from a city – and it’s far safer, too. São Paulo becomes easier (and hopefully cheaper) to get to from next summer when Virgin Atlantic launches its new direct route.
Once infamous for painful prices, Japan is now almost a bargain, which helps explain why Kyoto took second place in our world city survey for the first time.
The weak yen is making the place affordable for more and more British visitors. The average hotel room rate is now close to £100, which is far cheaper than Singapore and Hong Kong, and half the price of some US cities. The five-star appeal remains cultural, however.
If the Japanese soul lies anywhere, it’s amid the Buddhist temples (many among Kyoto’s 16 World Heritage Sites) and Zen gardens and tea ceremonies of this former imperial capital. Keen prices mean crowds (two stars) – and in March, Kyoto authorities banned tourists from some parts of geisha district Gion, but you need only take a step or two off the beaten path to be utterly alone as a tourist.
Pick up Which? Travel in March to read about our visit to Japan, and how you can see the best of the temples and nature on day trips from Tokyo
The newest parlour game in travel is called Stretch Your Pound. That’s why Europe’s breakout star of 2024 was Albania, its record 3.3 million foreign visitors up nearly 40% on 2023.
This year will see higher numbers, driven by headlines of bargain-basement prices for idyllic holidays. The Albanian Riviera is the Maldives of Europe, gushes social media, usually referring to sapphire seas around Ksamil resort. It’s not really; it’s more Corfu than Maldives. But don’t let that stop you.
Where Albania really stands out is inland. The mountainous interior scenery is blockbuster, and a throwback to the glory days of quieter Alpine trekking. A full-day Valbona trail pass to mountain village Theth provides a taste.
Elsewhere are cultural heavyweights: Unesco-listed citadels Berat and Gjirokaster provide history and pretty streets to sit and sip a glass of Albanian wine on – the Illyrian vineyards here are said to have provided the grapes that would eventually become cabernet sauvignon.
Always book your holiday with a reputable provider. Read our review of the best package holiday providers to find out more.
The Falklands? For a holiday? It’s been almost impossible for most of us, unless you had several thousand pounds to spend on a flight from RAF Brize Norton (yes, that is possible) or several days to route via Chile. But if the promised new LATAM flight from São Paulo arrives in 2025, it will become significantly easier and cheaper to take a trip to the archipelago.
It may also mark the moment when we see the Falklands for what it is. By all means come to see war sights and hear stories from locals over pints of Iron Lady. But come, too, for a place that feels like a tangential reality. Port Stanley is a singular South Atlantic village, as unique but oddly familiar as its deedle-dee berry jam cream teas.
Explored by twin-prop planes, landscapes are like an alternate Hebrides: a huge 3,200 penguins are escorted by king penguins at Volunteer Point or see elephant seals on Carcass Island.
As global cities blur into a homogenous fudge, the Falklands remains distinct.
Some time in 2025, third-country visitors to Europe will need to register online and pay £6 to enter under the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (Etias).
That includes Britons post-Brexit. It’s simple and not very expensive but, inevitably, the added bureaucracy of applying for a visa (technically advertised as a visa waiver) will put some people off. Step in Ireland. The Emerald Isle and UK will retain free travel in both states, making 2025 a moment to rediscover a country you may have overlooked for too long.
A 42% drop in visitors compared to 2019 is another reason. Once besieged, Cork and Kerry – the Ireland of popular imagination – are again soulful destinations of emerald-green hills and boat trips to see wildlife and the Skellig Islands in a new marine park. The Wild Atlantic Way, launched a decade ago, has matured, with top coastal restaurants and five-star stays now joining in the spectacular scenery. There’s never been a better time to go. Don’t let on.
It’s billed as ‘a shared moment of celebration’ – a national coming-together to mark 80 years since victory in Europe on 8 May 1945. If the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in 2024 was shared with Normandy, this event will be a home commemoration for Britons. Cathedrals will host showpiece events, including St Paul’s in London and Lincoln Cathedral, which welcomes the RAF college band.
If the mood takes you, you can join pipers at noon on the summits of Yr Wyddfa (Mount Snowdon), Scafell Pike, Slieve Donard and Ben Nevis. But we expect most celebrations will be local. Town criers will proclaim peace at 8am. Church bells will peel across the nation at 6.30pm, and then from 9.30pm more than 1,000 beacons will blaze across the land. Visit the VE day anniversary website for information.
This article was first featured in the January issue of Which? Travel
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